


Stage

by Roca



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-05 03:32:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6687484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roca/pseuds/Roca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Giles is forced to run the school play. Campy, cutesy hijinks ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stage

When Rupert stumbles into her classroom in a state of shock one day, Jenny assumes that some new mystical threat has popped up. After a minute of concerned interrogation, the truth turns out to be much more amusing: he has been selected (forced) by Snyder to direct Sunnydale High’s spring play.

It does sort of make sense -- Giles is probably the only member of the faculty with a working knowledge of dramatic literature (outside of the English teachers, who swore off any involvement with the production after last year’s incident with the flying monkeys). Plus, Snyder was probably just impressed when last year’s talent show wasn’t an unmitigated failure (onstage decapitations aside).

After his initial panic, Rupert does invested in the show. He decides to do King Lear, overruling her plea that they give Shakespeare a break and try something from the last century. Despite her lack of creative input, she does more or less wind up being co-director. He has to run out of rehearsal for Buffy’s training or to fend off demons at least a couple times a week, and she fills in for him. It’s kind of fun, she finds. The language is convoluted and the story is all kinds of messed up, but the kids are eager and throw themselves into their work.

Cordelia-the-girl becomes fixated on Cordelia-the-role, and she auditions passionately enough that Rupert ends up giving her the part of Lear’s eldest daughter. Cordelia is ecstatic to play her namesake, and chatters endlessly about how maybe she could do this for  _ real _ after high school. She’s not a bad actress (even though there is definitely an element of hokeyness to her style), and Jenny can’t help but root for her. It’d be nice for at least one of them to get away from Sunnydale and make a new life for themselves.

Rupert proves more nervous in the face of opening night than he ever has for an apocalypse. He stalks around backstage, fussing with the props and barking orders, and Jenny eventually has to banish him to the library with a cup of Earl Grey so they can get anything done.

She feels proud in spite of herself as she dims the house lights and signals Oz to play the opening track. Tech was the one aspect of the show that Rupert wouldn’t touch, so Jenny recruited Oz and a few kids from her computer science classes to make up the crew. Xander is manning the spotlight with the promise of extra credit, and Willow is calling cues on headset in the wings. She was nervous at first, but adapted to her job well and almost seemed to have a knack for bossing people around (which made her an ideal stage manager).

Buffy is also working backstage as Willow’s helper (the play having more or less unraveled into an all-hands-on-deck situation after the previous ASM’s parents developed a brain and moved their family out of Sunnydale). During tech week, every other member of the crew stood back and watched in awe as Buffy single-handedly hauled around each enormous set piece. Buffy even brought her mother’s dubious-yet-essential skills as a costume designer to the table. Somehow, with all of them working together, they managed to put together a show.

The weekend of performances passes in a blur -- and, thankfully, mostly without incident. Larry-as-Lear accidentally drops Cordelia’s “corpse”  during the final scene of the Saturday matinee, and Jenny busts Tucker Wells’ younger brother skulking around the dressing rooms, but everything else goes without a hitch. With Buffy’s help, the theatre kids are able to happily remark that this year’s set strike was the fastest and easier ever. Exhausted and jubilant, the cast and crew head home.

Rupert is left standing on the empty stage. His shirt is untucked and there is sawdust in his hair, but he has a look of great satisfaction upon his face. She smiles at him from the tech booth and meanders down the aisle to join him. The lighting is perfect, and the moment too sweet not to do  _ something _ , but she only has the energy to lean her head against his shoulder.

Combined with the endless skirmish with the Hellmouth that is their lives, the show has left them little time to themselves. She savors the moment, with all its simplicity and normality. Soon they will get up and return to the insanity that is their lives. But for now, they can stand on the stage and pretend.


End file.
